Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of hearing loss to different audiometric mean values

Hearing loss in the elderly is one of the most incapacitating communication disorders, preventing them to fully perform their tasks in society. AIM: This study aimed to determine what is the best tool that together with the audiometric tests better represents the hearing loss reported by the elderly and which frequencies in the audiometric test must be considered to determine the hearing loss degree. STUDY: Clinical prospective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 71 elderly with ages between 60 and 82 years old were assessed. The subjects were submitted to a conventional audiometric assessment and a Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) questionnaire. Three audiometric averages were analyzed and compared with the results obtained in the complete form (HHIE) and in its reduced form (HHIE-S). RESULTS: specificity showed values between 43.5% and 58.5% for HHIE with the different audiometric averages and values between 50% and 63.4% for the HHIE-S. CONCLUSION: audiometric average pure tone thresholds in the frequencies of 4kHz and 6kHz found in the audiometric assessment did not contribute to the self-reported hearing handicap perception. The correlation between HHIE-S and PTA1 had the best specificity (63.4%) and best positive predictive value (62.5%).